📷 The Carnival has Arrived 🎷- What is "La Ursa"?

jsantana (70)in #photography • 7 years ago

"La Ursa" is one of the most popular carnival characters in my city. It is very common to see several groups of people (usually 3 or 4 people) who come together to be able to do the "La Ursa Group" where one person is beating one drum, the other in the same way also to be able to shake the music that is sung and a third person who is responsible for playing the main role of La Ursa, who is dressed as a bear and who goes in front of the group dancing and collecting coins from people who pass by and enchant themselves with the presentation.

The song that is used by the group is usually this:

"La Ursa wants money, who does not give, is greedy"

And it is repeated several times when of the group passages.

The most interesting of all is that the intention of "La Ursa", besides animating and being one of the cultural manifestations of our carnival, has a very social function that is the people who see the presentation, help voluntarily with coins those people that present themselves.

I remember when I was a kid, I was about 4, 5 years old and living in a poor community in Recife, I and my friends from the street all carnival made a small group of "La Ursa". We went out singing, shouting and dancing through the streets of the neighborhood asking for coins from the people who passed us, and after sharing among us, the money was used to buy popcorn, candy and other goodies, as well as to buy that album of cards that was fashionable at that moment.

I most often did the character of La Ursa, and since we did not have enough resources to get a costume to use, we would improvise an unused sugar bag where I would rip and dress with a mask. Our happiness was complete.

Good times as a child, where simplicity, practicality, friendship, humility and innocence were all we needed to be happy.

Long Live La Ursa!

This post is one of several that will follow by the end of February about the carnival celebrations that will happen here. I hope that I can pass on to you all this atmosphere of celebration and joy that invades the place that I live.

If you haven't read the previous post, the link is below: